Jewish leaders criticise Pope's book

A new book by Pope John Paul II today attracted criticism over comments by the pontiff comparing abortion to the Holocaust and characterising gay marriage as part of an "ideology of evil".

The book, called Memory and Identity, which was launched by an Italian publishing house yesterday, also reveals the Pope's thoughts in the moments after he was shot in an assassination attempt in 1981. The Rizzoli publishing house said it would come out in 14 editions in 11 languages over the next few months.

Jewish groups voiced anger over its comparison of the Holocaust and abortion. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book last week, reporting the Pope's words that a legally elected parliament had allowed Hitler's rise to power in Germany, which led to the Holocaust.

"We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present day democracies," AP quoted the pontiff as writing. "The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws ... parliaments which create and promulgate such laws must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature."

Paul Spiegel, the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told the Netzeitung daily newspaper that "such statements show that the Roman Catholic church has not understood, or does not want to understand, that there is a tremendous difference between factory-like genocide and what women do to their bodies".

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German who heads the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, rejected suggestions that the Pope was "putting abortion and the Shoah [the Hebrew word for the Holocaust] on the same level". He said the Pope wanted to alert society to the "danger of evil".

In another section of the book, the Pope refers to "pressures" on the European parliament to endorse gay marriage. "It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man," he writes.

The Pope describes his thoughts after being shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, and says someone must have hired the assassin. He almost died after the shooting, which happened in St Peter's Square on May 13 1981, and says he felt fearful and in pain, but also had "a strange feeling of confidence" that he would live.

Two trials in the early 80s failed to prove prosecutors' suspicions that the Bulgarian secret services had masterminded a plot to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union.

The Pontiff was a strong supporter of the Solidarity trade union in his native Poland. Solidarity was seen by Moscow as a threat to the stability of the communist bloc.

Memory and Identity is based on conversations the Pope had in Polish with close friends Krzysztof Michalski, a philosopher, and the late Rev Jozef Tischner in 1993 at the Papal summer residence near Rome. "Someone taped them and transcribed them, but it remained unpublished," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

The book also examines the damage done to Europe by Nazism and communism, and mentions the September 11 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, saying terrorist networks represent "a constant threat for the life of millions of innocents".

The book is the Pope's fifth. His first, entitled Crossing the Threshold of Hope, was published a decade ago and sold 20m copies. Royalties go to charity.